Linux Succeeding Everywhere But On The DesktopLinux Succeeding Everywhere But On The Desktop

What ever happened to the "Linux is dead" talk that followed the SCO suit against IBM? In fact, what ever happened to the SCO suit? Linux appears to be not just alive, but living large.

IBM has announced it will create a special sales force for its hardware that runs Linux products from partners Red Hat and Novell. A new industry group, Linux Phone Standards Forum, is devoting itself to speeding the adoption of Linux in mobile devices. Only on the desktop is Linux lagging, and Linus Torvalds' Open Source Development Labs (OSDL) is digging at the whys and wherefors of that one -- but I'm not sure OSDL is on the right track.A recent article about an OSDL study says the primary reason Linux doesn't seem to be going anywhere on the desktop is its lack of support existing desktop applications and utilities.

The study, which summarized 3,300 survey responses, mentioned applications like Photoshop, PageMaker, AutoCAD and Quicken. It also concluded that ". . . Linux desktop must be able to fully run Windows applications easily and with full functionality."

The logic of that escapes me for several reasons. One is the obvious point that the Macintosh has done pretty well lately without being able to run Windows applications. Before you even get your mouth open I will admit that there are (I think) Macintosh versions of all the programs named in the previous paragraph, plus the King Kong of productivity apps, Microsoft Office.

But, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I offer Exhibit A, OpenOffice.org 2.0 -- just one of what are effectively several versions of Office for Linux -- at least, applications that do the same things and create compatible files.

Another reason is the trend toward Web-based applications. Anything you can do in a browser you can do in Linux. (This is why we shouldn't be holding our breath waiting for brilliant things from Microsoft's Windows Live initiative: the more it succeeds, the more it undercuts the market for Windows. You shouldn't think of Windows Live as a Web-based-applications play, but as a shift from a purchase model to a licensing model for consumer software. Microsoft is hoping to do what the megaplexes are doing -- sell you a ticket at the door AND make you look at as much advertising as it can sell on your way to the feature presentation.)

OSDL is probably unable to see past the chicken-and-egg syndrome -- the idea that there won't be a version of Quicken for Linux, for example, until there is a critical mass of Linux users to make it profitable. And there won't be a critical mass of Linux users until there's a version of Quicken.

But is this a problem or an opportunity? Windows has Photoshop; Linux has the GIMP. Windows has Quicken; Linux has an opportunity.

Do I need Quicken to run on a Linux box? No. I need software that does on a Linux box what Quicken does on a PC -- manages my bank accounts and credit cards. That's non-trivial, for sure. Quicken, with its automated downloading of transactions, is a complex piece of software. But the 80-20 rule applies -- 80 percent of us use only 20 percent of an application's features. File compatibility with Quicken, Autocad, PageMaker, Photoshop, and Office are the big issue.

IBM and the various partner groups it has formed have made Linux a serious alternative on the server. The Linux Phone Standards Forum (LiPS -- way too cute an acronym) is aiming to do the same thing for the handheld device market. What desktop Linux needs now is an IBM equivalent -- a sugar-daddy company with a vested interest in sticking a thumb in Microsoft's eye.

That sounds to me like a job for Google. And it could start with some simple but symbolic moves, like offering versions of Picasa and Desktop for Linux.